


An Open Door

by houdini74



Series: Clint and Marcy [4]
Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Committed Relationship, M/M, Parent-Child Relationship, Wedding Planning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-22 12:19:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19667773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/houdini74/pseuds/houdini74
Summary: Marcy talks to Patrick and David about the wedding.





	An Open Door

**Author's Note:**

> I started this series thinking I'd write a cute story about how well David and Marcy would get along and now it's evolved into stories about Patrick and his parents rebuilding their relationship. I have a few more of these planned leading up to the wedding, but if anyone has prompts that they'd like to see from Marcy or Clint's perspectives, let me know in the comments, I'd love to have them!

The invitation comes in the mail. It isn’t a surprise, Patrick had told them last week that they were sending them out. Still, it makes her breath catch as she slides her finger under the flap of the heavy envelope and pulls out the embossed invite. Seeing their names written together makes her want to laugh with joy even as, deep down inside, she also wants to cry, just a little.

She runs her fingers over the raised letters and picks up her phone to call David.

“Marcy.” His voice is warm, he’s happy to talk with her. Since their visit last fall, she and David have spoken regularly on the phone, even more so now that the wedding preparations have accelerated.

David has made it easy to learn about what’s going on in Patrick’s life. He readily shares the details of the wedding planning, of the store, of their plans to find a larger place after they’re married. She’s grateful to David for being the conduit between the two of them. And yet, she wishes it wasn’t so difficult for Patrick and herself to share their lives in the same way.

“David, the invitations are beautiful.” She doesn’t know why she’s so emotional to see the invitation. David had sent her the mock-ups before they were printed. But somehow, holding the thick paper in her hand makes everything seem real. She runs her fingers over the letters again.

There are a million questions she wants to ask. If the invitation means that everything is okay. If she can finally release the worry that threads through the joy and love she feels every time she thinks of her son and his dramatic, loving fiance. More than anything she wants to know how Patrick is feeling, if he’s excited about the wedding preparations that caused him so much stress and pain the last time.

She knows how much Patrick loves David. She sees it when they’re together, she hears it in Patrick’s voice when he talks about David on the phone. Regardless, she still feels uneasy as she worries that something will go wrong. She knows it’s irrational, at the same time, she’s afraid to ask Patrick how he’s feeling, worried he will react badly to a misinterpreted question.

“I love the idea of the photos.” In their invitations, David and Patrick had asked for their guests to send photos of themselves with either or both of them to be included at the wedding.

“That was Patrick’s idea, actually.”

She thinks about how closed off Patrick had been during the planning for his and Rachel’s wedding. Knowing that it’s different this time, that he and David are planning the wedding together sends a ripple of relief through her.

She should just ask him. Ask Patrick how he feels about choosing the perfect cake and wine and decorations. But she can’t quite dare. She feels that they are closer than they have been in years but she also feels that they are both still being careful about their relationship, feeling for the edges, not wanting to rip open old wounds. 

So instead, she talks to David.

“What’s on your planning list this week?”

“Mmm. Cake tasting and we have our first tuxedo fittings.”

“Didn’t you have a cake tasting last week?”

“There’s no such thing as too much cake.”

She smothers a laugh. 

“Have you decided what you’re going to do about the store while you’re away?” David and Patrick would be gone for a week after the wedding on their honeymoon. They’d been trying to decide on the best option for managing the store while they were gone. 

“Hmm, I think we’re going to close. There were lots of volunteers to help, but we thought it might be better for our bottom line if we didn’t open at all.”

She laughs again. She can understand why they’re reluctant to leave their store in the hands of David’s family. 

“I wish we were closer…”

“We do too.” The ‘we’ makes her breath hitch a little. She knows David hears it when he repeats. “We both do.”

She wants that to be true. She desperately wants to believe that to be true.

“Marcy…” There’s a long pause and she can hear all of the things that David wants to say, the reassurance he wants to give, about her son, about the wedding, about the future. When he speaks again, his voice is soft. “I’ll tell Patrick you called.”

She puts down the phone and looks at the invitation again. 

_Patrick Brewer and David Rose invite you to celebrate..._

She props the invitation against the sugar bowl in the middle of the dining room table so that Clint will see it when he comes in. She heads to Patrick’s old bedroom to get out the photo albums to find the perfect photo for them to have at the wedding.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, she flips through the first album, pulling out photos as she goes. There’s a picture of a six year old Patrick standing with the two of them on the porch of this house on the day they moved in, his curls are honey-colored and tousled. Next is a photo of the three of them the day Patrick won the local talent contest. He’s holding his guitar casually in one hand, the other is around her shoulders. She flips through the rest of the albums, pulling out photos of the three of them until she gets to the photos with Rachel.

She spreads the photos out on the bed beside her. None of them feel right. None of them capture who Patrick is now, the look she sees in his eyes when he looks at David, the relaxed set to his shoulders. She sweeps them up into a pile, considering.

After a moment, she pulls out her phone, scrolling back to last fall, when David and Patrick had visited them. About halfway through the album is the photo she remembers. They’d been in the back garden when her friend Joan had stopped by. Wanting to capture the moment, Marcy had asked her to take a few photos of the four of them. Most of the photos were the slightly awkward group photos that usually resulted from those types of photo shoots, but the last one was different. It had clearly been taken after they had all believed the photo taking was over. 

She and Patrick are in the middle of the photo. He has his arm around her waist but he’s looking towards David, who is kissing him on the cheek, pulling Patrick to him. Beside her, Clint has his arm across her shoulders, but his hand is gripping Patrick’s shoulder. He’s smiling as he looks at David and their son. But it’s the look on her own face that makes her want to send this photo to Patrick. She’s laughing, the smile on her face an exact match for the one on Patrick’s.

She opens her messaging app. She’s about to send the photo to David when she has second thoughts. She chooses Patrick’s number from her contacts list instead.

_For the wedding. I love how happy you look._

He responds right away.

_Thanks mom._

After a minute there’s a second text.

_Thanks for letting me be so happy._

A few days later she gets a text from David. There’s no message, just a photo of Patrick. He’s wearing a black tuxedo and he looks faintly embarrassed, like he can’t quite believe what’s happening is real. Even through the embarrassment, he looks happy. 

For a second, she wishes that Patrick would be the one to send her these photos, to be the one who reaches out. She’s about to phone David to thank him for the photo when she realizes that she’s been doing the same thing as Patrick has. She’s been waiting for him to connect, using David as an intermediary to make sure they both know what the other is thinking without having to risk a difficult conversation. 

She dials Patrick’s number instead.

“Hi mom.”

“Patrick…” Suddenly she doesn’t know if she should apologize or thank him or just tell him that she loves him. “Patrick, tell me about the wedding?” She doesn’t mean for it to be a question, but maybe it’s easier that way.

There’s a long pause. “Um...Let me see if David...”

“Patrick. Honey, I’m asking you.” She tries to keep her voice soft and light, doesn’t want him to feel attacked or threatened, she just wants to hear him talk about it, to get a sense for how he’s feeling. 

The pause is even longer this time. 

“Well, we tried on our tuxes yesterday...and David made us go to our third cake tasting. At this point I think he just wants free cake.”

She can hear mumbling in the background. 

“David says we have to consider all of our options.” His voice is fond and she laughs along with him, the mumbling in the background gets louder as David’s protests increase.

“Thanks for sending that photo.” His voice is warm, a note of laughter carrying over from before. “And thanks for choosing one that we both were in. It...it means a lot to me to be able to show people how you feel about David.”

“Oh, honey.” There’s a lump in her throat. She hadn’t considered that people might question how she and Clint felt about David, about whether they had regrets about Rachel. “Is there anything you need for the wedding?”

“Have you asked David? You know he has a list.”

“Yes. But is there anything _you_ need?”

He’s quiet again, but it doesn’t feel as fraught as before. “Not right now. But you could ask again, when it gets closer?”

“I will.” It’s a promise. 

She’d thought that he’d known. That he could ask anything of them and that they would give it. But maybe it’s never been that simple. Perhaps as badly as she needs to hear him laugh about wedding cake and get choked up about family photos, he needs just as badly for her to ask what he needs, to say the words out loud, to reassure him that she would give anything he wants to ask of her.

She looks at the invitation again, still sitting upright against the sugar bowl. 

_Patrick Brewer and David Rose invite you to celebrate..._

For the first time it feels like an invitation to something more than their wedding, that she’s being invited to step through a door back into her son’s life. For too long both of them have been waiting for the other, neither of them wanting to make the first move. She’s not sure if Patrick is ready, but she’s willing to hold that door open as long as she needs to. As long as Patrick needs her to.


End file.
